


If the Shoe Don't Fit

by blueberry



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Frenemies, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-24 16:22:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3775342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueberry/pseuds/blueberry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eclair comes to attends Ouran High School, and in giving spirit and letting bygones be bygones, Tamaki suggests that she be allowed to join the club - if she has the necessary skills, of course.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If the Shoe Don't Fit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aeriel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeriel/gifts).



"Lessons in ... seduction...?" Éclair locked her gaze with her guest's, blue eyes luminously intense through her lashes. "Why would you think I offer something like that?"

(Some members of the Host Club docked points at that juncture - she still presented challenges when she should be focusing on creating feelings of ease and satisfaction; saw weakness, and struck!

(Others stayed their hand simply for that thing she did with her eyes. Tamaki got distracted from the review process and flipped the pages on his clipboard until he got to the mirror attached to it, so that he could practice mimicking the technique.)

"Oh-yes-whyever- _would_ -I-think-that!" Éclair's guest surged bolt upright in her seat, panic and some other undercurrent of feeling rising ferociously within her. A sip of fragrant tea from the cup she held just above her lap - with hands that gave one more sloppy tremor - and her poise returned. She was one of several girls arrayed around a tea table as they talked with Éclair of the renowned Tonnerres, curious about the newest entertainer in the Host Club, and had made herself a momentary leader by beginning the conversation. She would have to continue. "But ... you might not know, as you've joined the school so recently, but the fact of the matter is that boys still don't come to the Host Club as guests, so I thought that you ... for the current clientèle ... there would be some service that you provide."

"I will do all that I can to contribute. This is my agreement with the Host Club's kind King and his loyal court. For now, it's perhaps best to think of me as something new."

"A ... a breath of fresh air?" the girl tried, and was emboldened on receiving a more smiling look than before, fractional though the increase was. "An unexpected bonus!"

(It was hard to argue with a declaration such as that. Some hosts gave Éclair sufficient points to join the club then and there.

(Haruhi saw that things were going all right and simply got bored with looking over at people across the room all the time. She went back to chatting with her own guests. All four of them were other students newly inducted to the second year, and there was a lot of commiserating conversation to be had about studies.)

"Claaaiii~re-ch♥n!" Honey cried, the only warning that he was flinging himself open-armed at Éclair, and for the first time during her probation trial the girl was thrown off. With an unsettled jerk she dodged to the opposite end of her couch, leaving Honey to change his flight so that he did a somersault and bounced into a landing on the vacated couch cushion instead of meeting a hug.

(So graceless! So unfriendly! Points would have to be docked across the board. And yet--)

"Haninozuka-san. I have prepared a token for you..." Still with a flustered redness to her cheeks, she picked up a lavender box with an extravagant bow that she'd taken care to place near the couch. "While I have heard that this is not your very favourite kind of pastry, they are made particularly well, and I feel it makes a more sincere gift to present you with..."

"Éclairs!" Honey cheered and had them plated in no time flat, and the bow from the box was tied onto his teddy's head in the instant after that. He ate one of the pastries, then hopped off the couch to leave her to her main task. "Excellent, Tonnerre-san," he said, his cheeks adorably flecked with cream and crumbs. "Thank you! Soooo delicious!"

(Honey was someone who could appreciate a devious tactic; so too were several other hosts. They contemplated the incident: the recovery had not been perfect and the save was rather obvious, but she'd done research and it had served her well. It was also worth considering that she'd met Honey on more formal grounds rather than compromise her image with attempting irreconcilable cuteness...)

Some of the girls seated with Éclair excused themselves, citing eagerness to speak with special hosts Honey and Mori, now that the former third-years had graduated and were a tragically rare sight on Ouran High School campus. A few came by to thank Éclair for helping Honey to show his adorable self to best advantage, giving her complicit grins. She merely inclined her head.

But a few of the girls stayed. Two seated on the couch opposite her, two on chairs that had been brought over, and one leaning her arms on the back of the couch with none of the delicate poise that had usually been imprinted on the female students from a young age, but with a plainly eager grin. "It seems that you do not appreciate Honey-sempai's style of cuteness?" she said. "But Éclair-san, please, tell us what type you _do_ appreciate!"

"Aa?" Wearing that fractional smile, she shrugged. "One must have some secrets," she said ... eyes once again locked to her most talkative guest, their blue as frank and hot as flame.

The guest trembled from hem to hair, skirts ruffling, teacup rattling, curls bobbing. The one leaning over the couch back grinned wider.

(No one gave any marks now. They put the pens and keyboards down and turned to where Tamaki sat, even before...)

A sharp crack of a hand-clap resounded through the room, rousing the attention of all. "Sweet blossoms of femininity and vitality - you must excuse us." The Host King rose to his feet. "Duty calls us away for a moment - but a moment only! And then we should walk across hot coals to be at your sides once more."

Tamaki led the hosts to a corner of the music room, then spun on his heels to face them all. "It is settled, Éclair. You are part of the Host Club. And your role, your appeal to the lovelies that come here to be indulged will be: _The Vamp._

"Now come here and give Daddy a hug!"

When Éclair did nothing but stare at Tamaki, his beaming smile and open arms, Haruhi heaved a sigh. "That's him," she told Éclair. "And if you ask him he is sort of married to Kyoya, too. Don't ask him - but I suppose you won't escape experiencing it all the same..."

"You may skip giving Mummy a hug," Kyoya said, to Éclair's even greater evident shock.

"Come, come, we must finalise things so that we might celebrate!" Tamaki gestured her closer. "Our two recent graduates will not have much time to hang around their high school anymore! Your fawnlike hesitance need not hold you frozen..."

The twins neatly stepped up to Éclair once Tamaki was sufficiently wrapped up in his monologue not to notice. "Dear-distant-cousiiiiin," they chanted. "It is time for your celebratory induction costume change!"

_Resistance._

She identified it with a glance - twins versus interloper, they were set against each other, and both sides knew it. The Hitachiin twins refused to accept that she was here because her family had insisted she try again to ensnare Tamaki, and that she did not wish to nearly ruin his life again; she refused to reject the offer he had made her when she warned him that she was returning, and which had just been reaffirmed. But for now, though battle lines were drawn, it suited them all to go along with what was necessary for the club. Éclair went swiftly to the changing rooms before they tried to drag her there, and the twins trailed her giving obnoxious commentary.

Meanwhile, behind them, Tamaki had discovered that his newest recruit had abandoned him already, and worked up to a determined leap to bestow his paternal embrace—and as he leapt was engulfed by Mori and Honey in farewell, now that the business part of their visit was concluded. "Lucky escape for our new member," Haruhi said to Kyoya, but when that statement drew Mori and Honey's attention, she grinned all the same as the two of them were also dragged into hugs.

At the changing room, things were tense. It had been agreed that should Éclair join the club, she must wear something other than the usual uniform even when the Host Club was not having a special theme, so that she would stand out among the yellow-dressed crowds that regularly thronged Music Room 3. The Hitachiin had decided that this - along with her newly bestowed title, surely - meant ... a Bride of Dracula outfit.

 _Perfectly_ cut to fit and flatter her. How did they know her measurements? Ohtori must have researched her within an inch of her life. She could not object on those grounds, and she would not give them an inch by indicating that she couldn't pull it off. She drew aside the curtain to her change room and stepped out, dress of a black-blue velvet bringing out the paleness of her skin and artfully tattered lace finishing lending her form a bony frailty, fangs in place, and her own opera glasses up to her eyes.

Snickering in tandem, the twins pushed things just a touch too far: "Oh, put those things away! Here you go, Éclair," said one, and the other thrust a headband with devil horns into her face as she tucked away the opera glasses, "the perfect, most suitable finishing touch!"

She felt her lips thin - a tell she never could quite manage. The horns didn't even fit the theme!

Éclair took the headband, passed it over her own head into her left hand, and as she went on tip-toes, plunked it down on the head of the twin on her left before he'd finished snickering. Her right hand was reaching up towards a box of costuming accoutrements she had spotted on a high shelf in an open wardrobe, from which she drew a halo that was swiftly settled on the other twin's head. "Your assistance is noted," she said, "but I am entirely capable of choosing accessories myself." And she shoved them into the front of the room while they were just deciding whether they were more indignant on their own behalf or each other's.

"Hey, y--!" the twins thundered, but it was overwhelmed by voices and laughter in a higher pitch.

"Aaahh, twins! How can you be so adorable!" Host club guests crowded close. "It's a cute touch for them-- _but such a heartfelt truth_!" one whispered to her friend, and they had an argument about whether Kaoru was truly a secret angel rather than little devil type. Another gripped the skirts of her uniform dress tightly; it was gauche to ask for a photo with the hosts if it wasn't a special Photography Allowed day, but the temptation had rarely been greater. And then Honey and Mori found the twins too, gamely joining in with calling them adorable as they dealt out goodbye hugs.

Éclair was free to make her escape, battle won ... but the war was not over.

A hand stopped her on her determined way back to her guests - one holding a multi-coloured fan of forms in front of her face: the scorecards that the Host Club had filled to determine how well she did as a host, and whether or not she had what it took to be a part of the club. The keys to her acceptance, held up as if they still presented an obstacle.

For all that her heart contracted sharply and sped its pace, her face paled instead of reddened; but at least that would look good with the costume. She pulled herself together and looked in expectance to Kyoya, who held the scorecards.

"Haruhi has not given in her form," he said, and tapped together the fan into a neat sheaf of paper to tuck under his arm. "It is, at this point, a mere formality, as our President himself has welcomed you... Nonetheless, it's an important formality. The data is something I can analyse for more than just this Host Club entrance exam."

"Oh - did I forget?" Haruhi looked slightly startled. "Sorry, sorry. I went to talk to some people and forgot to even finish my assessment."

_...Resistance...?_

There should be resistance. This girl had been the first to decide Éclair was an enemy the previous year, and she was in the same class as the Hitachiin brothers, who currently showed the most overt animosity; the jealousy Haruhi had shown last year might this year be compounded by having Éclair in the same class as Tamaki and Kyoya, who had made it a point to be welcoming - Kyoya in his own way (and most likely at Tamaki's request), solicitous and with no more than a few brief threats, and Tamaki with wild enthusiasm that ought to be the stuff of legends.

She was certainly avoiding looking at Éclair - perhaps even avoiding sideways and behind-the-back glances, as Éclair was skilled in detecting those and could not recall an instance where she had perceived them from Haruhi Fujioka. There was discomfort, if not full resistance.

But nonetheless Haruhi beetled off willingly to fetch her scorecard.

"Well, let's see..." She offered a brave smile when she came back with her clipboard and pen, a smile that didn't appear to want much to do with events. "To be honest, I stopped paying attention, so I don't really know if I can score you properly ."

"Should I seduce you so that you have firsthand experience?"

Haruhi burst out laughing. A short burst, and a bit awkward - but not mean. "No wonder Tamaki-sempai was eager to invite you! I think you might be birds of a feather. Though it can't be easy to seduce if you're wearing an outfit like that."

Nothing easier, Éclair thought - except. It hit her again - this was a girl. What she had done earlier with those other girls was what she had been encouraged to do by Tamaki, and even the school itself in its tacit acceptance in terms of allowing the Host Club to exist, but it was a strange game to play if she let herself think about it again. Discomfited, she waited for a cue from Haruhi instead of trying to make one of her own.

Haruhi said, "I'll watch you work a little while more, and then give my card to Kyoya-sempai, okay?"

She watched the girl walk off, and thought of things that she had heard so far: 'little devil type' attached as a label to one twin, Haninozuka and Morinozuka described as having been 'loli-shota' and 'wild', and herself a 'vamp'. She asked Kyoya what role Haruhi played for the club.

Hmm. 'Natural'. Not exactly a role, then ... though she was pretending to be a boy. If she could manage to be a 'natural' despite that, it certainly counted as a novelty in Éclair's world - the same must hold true for the circles the Ouran High School populace moved in.

Seduction was still a simple thing, however. It need not work fully on Haruhi; it would be enough to get her attention, even if it didn't leave her mouldable - it could still lead to so much. Haruhi was already assigned to look at her, and the key now was to find a balance between what Éclair wanted her to look at and what Haruhi wanted to see.

Éclair was very nice to her guests for the quarter-hour of conversation still allotted to club hours. She was not quite _herself_ ; nicer. It was not what Tamaki had had in mind when he named her role, and she'd have to figure out how to work around that when these girls returned, but now the focus was on making sure that she was here when they returned.

She kicked her shoes off when the club members were the only ones left in Music Room 3, daintily and easily walking barefoot as she went to greet Tamaki and Kyoya - something natural, which would resonate. She made sure that Haruhi would see that, walking past where she was looking through her school bag. Would she also see the grace Éclair had cultivated all her life? How easily she wore the heavy dress, sure and strong along with the apparent frail quality it gave her? Generally that was an irresistible combination.

Unfortunately, it didn't do to look too closely to see the effect she was having. Right now, in close quarters, taking out the opera glasses for an extra layer of removal between observer and observed wouldn't be any help. But ... there was a sense of Haruhi's eyes on her now. It was a relief and a source of tension - she needed the seal of approval.

This club ... she was almost sure it wasn't simply a club. She knew that Tamaki, at least, had meant more by his invitation to try it out than just to give her a possible extracurricular. Forgiveness, and... As much as she remembered the smile Tamaki had given her before he'd gone to save Haruhi, her mind also played out visions of Haruhi come to save her friend, shouting ridiculous things about the ridiculous club as she raced closer in a ridiculous carriage, her formerly inward demeanor left far behind.

When she left the music room she found that she had made a success of keeping Haruhi's eyes on her. Standing by the enormous windows that overlooked the grounds, wishing for a breath of fresh air, Éclair was joined by a presence behind her - then beside her.

But now, unfortunately, Haruhi was again not looking. That could be taken care of... Éclair brushed her fingers against Haruhi's arm, and the other girl started.

"Well?" said Éclair. "More seduction required?"

"That sounds so..." Haruhi trailed off in a dark mutter.

"I'm happy to try."

Do not blush. That was important. Say anything - be ruthless - do whatever was necessary - but never blush. The _other_ person was supposed to be doing that.

Haruhi shot her a look, only slightly flushed. It irritated Éclair obscurely. She always had more of an effect than this when she put effort in. Even on girls, as she had discovered with her first clients.

"Just tell me," said Haruhi. "Have you really come just for school? To study, and give Tamaki-sempai news of his mother, and that's it?"

"And to join the Host Club," said Éclair, for the girl who was so 'natural'. Anything could be a tool to seduce and sway a mind: even truth.

"You wanted to-- _really_?"

"It's fun. Including the costume changes."

"Aa?" Slowly - and then all at once, Haruhi brightened. "One hundred per cent!" she said, presenting her clipboard and the attached scorecard form with a flourish, but then hesitated for a moment and wrote a mark of 101 at the top of the form.

She sighed. "It seems fitting, for the Host Club."

It did.

And she would have to find some way of thanking Haruhi Fujioka. She owed her for this favour as much as she owed Tamaki.

For now, she tentatively tried a smile, and it was returned.

*

Soon enough Éclair found that she and Haruhi rarely traded smiles that way. Tamaki was a better bet for that ... a friend like that, happy to give invitations, guidance, _sweetness_ all the time. Just the kind of boy his mother was always saying he was, a story come true. One that she could now re-tell to her in discreet communications, and so repay her.

Kyoya traded stock tips. But he was fun: he volleyed his aloofness as she wielded her close presence shamelessly, and neither of them could have meant the back-and-forth less. They looked at each other and saw what the future would be like, with interactions where these games would be business. It was like practice, but what wasn't? And there was no malice in this.

The Hitachiin twins were, in fact, _both_ little devil types. This had been clarified without anyone needing to state it. They were against her more than they were against anyone else, unforgiving after what she'd done to Tamaki, but considering that they appeared to torment everyone in sight she could not take it too seriously. Tamaki called the animosity between the three of them 'sibling rivalry' with apparently real distress, while the twins insisted on 'cousinly rivalry'.

As for Haruhi - on occasions where the hapless Kasanoda joined in as a helper host, when the twins declared boredom, when even Kyoya put on a slight smile and played along with Tamaki's strangest and admittedly embarrassing excesses - then it was nice to have someone to roll her eyes with.

And the guests ... it could not be denied that they made up another large presence in her new life. Uncertain and eager, blushing and straightforward, they came to her to observe, question, learn, and even to simply indulge in her presence. Only a few were openly attracted to her without hiding any part of it or trying to fool themselves. What could that be like? she wondered, and continued to pretend that she knew, intimately.

*

"Kidnapped!" the Hitachiin twins announced, bursting through the doors of Music Room 3. "Our dear, distant, conniving cousin has been kidnapped!"

Kyoya, for once, reacted more drastically than Tamaki, leaping to his feet fast enough that it nearly knocked his laptop into the dust. The rest of them were frozen.

"And it is not even the kidnapper that _we_ hired," Hikaru added with a pout, and Kaoru grinned at the rest of them.

At this point the other two boys recalled a vital point to consider, which Haruhi helpfully illuminated with a gesture across the table from her: "Éclair is sitting right here."

From out of nowhere - in complete silence! With no mechanical stage and certainly no cheerful announcements - Renge appeared between the twins. "Dreadful!" she barked, releasing from her sleeve a handkerchief with such a vicious flurry that the twins dived apart. She had never glared at them in that manner, which was not something the twins were able to say of anyone else who'd been acquainted with them for so long.

"It does not do to joke about kidnapping! The danger that we face as the vulnerable young attached to the social and financial powers of the world - that danger is very real!"

"Did ... something ever happen to you?" Haruhi said, not liking the brisk way that Renge wiped her face with the handkerchief.

"Oh! It is something that one hears of here and there ... that can happen to friends, sometimes. But there is no need to worry when Éclair-san's security is of high quality!" A last nasty look at the twins, and she departed with a flouncing swirl of skirts.

"Why," Kyoya said through his teeth, "would you make such an announcement - Kaoru, Hikaru?"

"Uh - well..." They didn't actually try to hide behind each other, but there was a bit of shuffling that suggested they wanted to try. "Someone does want to remove her from here for an undisclosed purpose!" said Kaoru, and, "Probably with a cruel intention!" Hikaru added, and then they turned to Éclair.

"The headmaster needs to see you," the twins said, and various degrees of stifled groans rolled around the room before Tamaki started outright yelling at them.

Éclair gathered her trust. She could already tell Kyoya was noting that she hesitated before she laid her dessert spoon in her bowl, but she did need a moment to regain her equilibrium, so it couldn't be helped. Then she stood and swept out, dismissing the thought that she should change. Her host club uniform differed from the normal one, the same blue as the boys' blazers instead of yellow, and it might cause the headmaster annoyance - but after all, Kyoya had gone to the trouble of getting official permission for it.

The headmaster was kind as ever, though. Even if trust was difficult to muster, Éclair could work with the fact that this situation was fairly predictable, though the timing was somewhat variable. She was given the report to read on her latest month's progress in Ouran High School, which would soon be sent to the heads of the Tonnere family. It contained everything: her grades, her arrival and departure times on school grounds, her syllabus, attendance at school events, what she ordered for lunch, her social circles, how she did at extracurriculars. She resisted the urge her fingers always felt to clench - but the headmaster had not thought to mention her Host Club clientèle was female, and without that knowledge, her family would let her continue to do what she must to clinch a lasting engagement with the Suoh heir.

There was nothing she could change. The headmaster had said the first time she would not be allowed to edit it, as her family had insisted on receiving a full and honest report from the school on the daughter of the household - a small thing to have as a condition for their generous donation and the support of the Tonerre name. Forewarning of what her family would soon know still counted as an advantage. Why, the report was so innocuous that she might need to add a scandal or two to her name so they could believe it was still her.

The usual recourse was to kiss someone she shouldn't. Éclair resolutely did not think of that this time.

"Is everything all right?" Haruhi asked when Éclair went back to the club. Her friendly behaviour nowadays was genuine, no more concern or smiles trotted out in determined politeness for a girl she regarded as a malingering interloper.

"The headmaster just reminded me of the other role I play."

She did not look at Tamaki or Kyoya, in case they had heard and reacted. It seemed unfair to give indication that such situations struck close to home for them too. She simply looked straight ahead as she walked and settled back into club activities once she was seated sufficiently far away from the other hosts. The hosts often wanted to be perceptive, but the guests actively wanted to avoid perceptiveness while they were in here, which sounded perfect at the moment.

But Haruhi's stubbornness was not to be underestimated. Haruhi often left fast once club was done because she needed to use public transport, but this afternoon, when Éclair left, she was trotting back up the stairs.

"Are you sure everything's all right?" Haruhi asked with a touch of aggravation, but her tone softened as she went on. "I shouldn't have asked in front of everybody - sorry. But I didn't realise it was something..." She hesitated.

Something more than Haruhi had expected, Éclair read into the silence. Something important, to have left you so obviously affected.

"Do you have no clashing roles that you must balance? Surely no one is so innocent and simple as to believe such a thing is easy."

For the second time within an hour she swept past the concern her school colleague displayed. No trouble would result - she would be ignored with grumpy righteousness, probably until Haruhi felt she could dare to share concern again, which might not happen until she got an apology. Éclair watched her the way she watched everyone, and was sure in her assessment of the situation.

It was a terrible time to start wondering, with an envious pang that stretched out into an ache, about what roles Haruhi played.

*

Haruhi did not care that she was a girl. She did not care that others thought she was a boy, or a girl, or a crossdresser, or straight, or homosexual. Her lack of caring towards all those things the world made so important became a background fact far too fast because of her straightforward attitude about it, when it was truly amazing. Unbelievable. Frustrating. Unattainable.

Joining the Host Club on a surprise visit to the Fujioka household and meeting her father explained a lot, especially once Éclair had utterly assured him that she was not from the Zuka Club and his little girl was safe with her, and he became syrupy sweet in a way she was not used to from a man.

It was a strange relief to know there was a reason in Haruhi's life for the way she behaved. Her father had obviously not shaped her in a mould, least of all his own, but surely his example had a lot to do with how she could be so fundamentally carefree. And it was something that could never have shaped Éclair, with her family and the kind of society that scrutinised them all perpetually.

"I'm surprised you bothered to come," Haruhi grumbled after the worst of the introductory chaos was over and she was laying out plates for the food everyone had brought over, then rolled her eyes at Éclair rather than with her, for once. Still grumpy, then.

She started when Éclair put her opera glasses in place. "What?" Haruhi demanded quietly, watching her look at the apartment. It was dreadful, but as livable as could be expected... And there it was: something interesting.

She put the opera glasses away and looked at Tamaki for a while where he kneeled in front of a shrine. She slid her eyes from him to Haruhi, who knew enough to pick up the question in the slight gesture.

"My mother. She passed away when I was young," she said. Now Éclair was a little surprised - she would have thought, with current hostilities, that Haruhi would not let such a sensitive subject be known. Such an obvious weakness, given to someone she was fighting with.

It would be easy to investigate.

But in this particular case, would it still easy would it be to use it as she always had; as she'd always been encouraged to use others' weaknesses?

*

Why, yes. Yes, it would be easy.

"A lawyer," Éclair said, sitting down at the library table, where she had been told she would find Haruhi. "I've heard that you intend to become a lawyer." She did not hide her amusement.

The frown wrinkled Haruhi's brow immediately, as if she were some old tycoon who had the power and connections to show all the displeasure he wished. All the subtly targeted gossiping and asking around had paid off - what Éclair said had hit home the way that the truth would. That type of information gathering was the classic battle tactic in the kind of wars that Éclair and the women of her family fought.

"How do you think that would work, Haruhi?"

"Studying," she said shortly.

"Temperament." She lifted one shoulder. "Studying too, of course. Knowing and being able to properly research old cases and such would be necessary; invaluable. But temperament ... Isn't it harder to cultivate?" And she met Haruhi's gaze through her lashes, her old and very effective trick for making an impact.

Haruhi did not have a trick, but she did always have a very direct gaze. "My temperament is determined."

"You are a natural type. But what you want to be ... is a manipulator. Someone who can argue a passionate truth within the blacks, whites, and grays of morality. Someone who can suggest and steer minds delicately..."

"I don't want to be you," Haruhi said, which had the sound of an insult - but her lips twitched and Éclair was too amused herself to take offence. She could not picture blunt-spoken Haruhi Fujioka defending any but the most obviously innocent party, or her arguments would lack all conviction.

"But we can be friends again," Éclair said, ticking her opera glasses back and forth in front of her face with an idle rocking of her hand. Through the arc the glasses made she saw Haruhi start upright. "Then I can help you be a little _like_ me."

"I don't know if this counts as an apology."

Another shrug indicated that Éclair didn't care.

"You're lucky I'm used to Hikaru and Kaoru, and how bad they are at apologising!"

And Haruhi was lucky that Éclair had developed a conscience, and wished to help a friend instead of win an argument and gain petty revenge for no real slight at all.

She felt like she ought to try and watch herself from outside. She would see Éclair Tonnerre grinning at a girl who she envied, admired, and laughed at a little. The girl would be frowning and smiling back. She knew that she would look like a startled cat when the girl bopped the end of a pen to Éclair's nose. The whole of the outside perspective would be strange in some way to match - it would have to, wouldn't it? - this contentment that she did not recognise feeling before. 

*

Training Haruhi in the art of not being painfully straightforward took time. The day after the impromptu library meeting, she had proven downright indignant about what Éclair had told her - "of course I have the temperament to be a lawyer!" over and over. At the same time she didn't want to bring back their little grudge, a fact she kept reassuring Éclair of as she railed. There was passion there about her chosen career, certainly, which was promising. 

Two days later, Haruhi dragged Éclair away to a quiet spot in the library, where they could converse with relative privacy. "I will be a lawyer..." Haruhi said. "That is my goal. But if I'm not a good one, and if studying isn't all that I can do..."

She grimaced furiously. "And it isn't, of course."

The quiet of the library reigned all around them, undisturbed between their still bodies.

"Why did you have to make me think this?" Haruhi said. "Now my dad's upset because he knows something's wrong, and I can't tell him what it's about."

If any of the other host club members were here, they would kill Éclair for causing this. She studied the way Haruhi worked her hands into her hair until it stood wildly, listened to her sniff as she stared at the table, and thought it would be almost literal.

It wasn't any other member of the Host Club, here with Haruhi. Even having caused the pain, she was trusted to help ease it.

Éclair kept a smile on her face - very slight - through thoughts of distress and trust alike. It was her business to be unflappable. "That is what Ouran is good for. All these 'rich bastards'," she said, as Haruhi always said under her breath. "The social navigation is a vital part of what makes it a good school for the likes of us ... and the likes of you, or you would not be here. Even what you do in the Host Club would help."

Haruhi looked up again and seemed rocked by her slight smile. "Why look at me like I'm being silly if you're going to compliment me at the same time?" Then she scrubbed her hands over her face. "Oof ... I _am_ being silly.

"But, Éclair ... if I don't make my dream..."

"We'll have to go through a lot of philosophy books," Éclair said. "Politics, perhaps?"

Haruhi blink-blinked at her, the tremulous shine in her eyes clearing away at the incongruity.

And so she helped train Haruhi: they picked arguments and debates up through books and the news and went at it, with Haruhi tasked to change Éclair's mind from her stated viewpoint. At one point the debate was about whether or not she should join a debating club - but, Haruhi said in her closing argument, it wasn't like the rules that applied to those debates had any bearing on what lawyers did, so the experience she did up on her own would serve as well, and it might clash too much with Host Club.

It was rare for Éclair to really argue in return. She would certainly refute points, but most often she tried to be as infuriating as possible. She would be bullheaded in defence of political stances she did not actually agree with; she would smirk and listen as if the responses were a mere fairytale. Haruhi could always see the deliberate attempt at riling her up and it turned the process into a half-laughing thing, Haruhi annoyed, determined, and pretty frequently teasing Éclair back rather than striving to win the argument.

The Host Club picked up on it, of course. It was a relatively loud shared joke and very consistent, sometimes ended with Éclair getting a throw pillow to the face (of particular interest to the twins), and was something that made Haruhi a little more serious. For a while it was a trend among them, the twins getting a kick out of picking a fight with Haruhi and getting her riled up about winning, and Kyoya more actively engaged in some debating exercise. 

But Tamaki went to the other girl and looked over her where she sat on her customary couch. "Éclair," he growled, teddy bear-like, "must you fight with everyone?"

"Only the twins."

"The twisted two-step, yes, I understand that regrettable dance partnership! But the tangled tango you and Kyoya keep engaging in...! The fact that my Host Club now engage in the most awkward of communal disco moves when they might have clasped hands as they enjoyed watching the dance of sisterly bonding...! Why?"

"I get along with _you_ ," she pointed out instead of answering, and gave him the smile that made him sigh, shrug, and smile back. She had a suspicion that it was because he could tell it was sincere.

*

" _Are_ you my friend?" Haruhi asked one day, having asked Éclair that they have lunch out in the gardens before the boys could get to them.

Of course she would ask that way. Even after all the debating.

She continued, "I'd like you to be. But it seems like it might be hard, with you feeling as you do. I'm not sure why you're jealous."

"It's very petty," Éclair said, gazing over the flowering hedges. The atmosphere of these gardens were so like home, but the association could still not make her feel that it would ever be dangerous to be honest with Haruhi. "I am glad to have discovered that you fill a role of yours awkwardly. For me ... there are many things I can't escape. You have escaped almost all of them, without trying."

"It was a little mean of you. But that's not unexpected. And it wouldn't have bothered me so much that you think I'm too blunt and oblivious if I didn't think you had a point." Haruhi snorted. "My other friends have spoken often enough of changes in the future, and how they need to change. I guess it took me a while to catch up."

"Don't change too much." Éclair was still looking out over the garden. But she could feel Haruhi's presence beside her on the stone bench as if they touched - hands on arms, in hair, nose filled with a distinct scent, mouth discovering a softness ... - instead of sitting with a comfortable distance between them.

"It's hard to change! The real danger is that I won't do it enough." There was pain to her laugh.

 _Your mother would still want to know it's really_ her _daughter who became a lawyer._ She didn't want to say that. Tamaki crumpling whenever she could relay a message from his mother was difficult enough. She didn't even know a thing about the departed Mrs. Fujioka.

Seduction, manipulation, control. They were all the same thing. It was all about minimising the hurt for the one implementing those strategies. If that person wished to minimise someone else's hurt, however...

Éclair sat silently beside Haruhi, having rejected what she could say and the ways she felt most comfortable touching another person, eating the lunch the catering staff had quickly boxed on request. Her presence would have to suffice. She thought of Tamaki's mother, who had sometimes been too sick to do much but was still happy to sit with hera for company, and hoped that for someone like Haruhi - so much more used to being surrounded by care - that this would still be good enough.

Haruhi nudged her with an elbow. "Thanks, I guess. For saying you like me as I am."

She smiled down at her lunch.

*

It was also no real surprise that Haruhi later asked - though she was discreet, at least - if Éclair wanting to date girls was one of the freedoms she envied Haruhi for.

Éclair slanted her a look. "Not at all. Why would it be?" And Haruhi looked vaguely confused but otherwise unbothered as she wandered away again.

There couldn't be revenge. She had worked out a fairly senseless portion of meanness on Haruhi already, and it was good to have salvaged the friendship from it. But the way the girl could just _be_...

With complete recklessness, refusing to really think about it - seeing herself act from outside herself, from a distance - Éclair decided to do the same.

*

It was easy to pursue Haruhi. Automatic, a polished reflex. It was breathtaking whenever she tried to pause for breath, so Éclair continued to avoid thinking much. She simply played the game, sensuous and ceaseless.

Honestly, there was something freeing in the way Haruhi reacted to it at about the same level as she reacted to Tamaki and the twins - barely noticeably.

But eventually she did tell Éclair, in a lull at the club "You could just have said you were kidding about not wanting to date girls."

"Ah, but I _don't_ want to."

That garnered her a flat look from Haruhi.

"Consider it a riddle." Her smile curled her lips to a sly tilt, and Haruhi stared for a long time.

The riddle was solved one afternoon a few days afterwards, when Éclair had invited herself over to Haruhi's place for a study session. They were in different years, but could still quiz each other, and could pick out topics for their upcoming debates. Haruhi sat cross-legged on the couch, slouching over a text book, and looked up sidelong when Éclair leaned close, hair tickling Haruhi's forehead, to hand her a glass of water.

"It's like a trick in perspective," Haruhi complained, but it was fascinating to see a smile try and break through her irritation. "I could use it for a mathematics project! Or an example of the Theory of Relativity, or something! You're making me feel taller and shorter all the time today."

"Aa?" Éclair had never thought of it in quite those words - it was a fairly accurate observation, though. She moved away from the window to join Haruhi on the couch, holding her gaze as she draped herself over it, body curved slightly towards Haruhi's.

"Tall, now that you're giving me that look," Haruhi said, the complaint fainter. She had been very successfully set to blushing. "Much taller. It would be an incredibly crazy mathematics project to present, come to think of it."

Really, it was indecent for her to point things like that out. People frequently didn't even notice such seduction techniques, and when they did, either avoided her and gave easily identifiable dismissal signals or played along. No one ever spoke about other people's behaviour that way, especially not to their faces, like it really affected them...

Haruhi blew out a breath, then grabbed Éclair's hand. This, she seemed to consider an accomplishment. "Well! Is that all right?"

"I could give you hints at how to be more accomplished."

"I'm glad it _is_ all right!" Haruhi said, looking at her sternly, and grumbled, "More than you've done so far, despite everything... You want to date me, right? Not just girls in general."

Éclair smiled with deliberate mystery. Haruhi shook her head and laughed, and squeezed her hand.

*

After that, she had to be fully honest - with the whole of the club. The thing about girls wouldn't bother them, but she thought even the twins would be disconcerted if she completely disappeared.

"You should all know... If anyone kidnaps me--" Éclair announced in Music Room 3 when it was just the hosts, with an arch glance at Hikaru and Kaoru - "it will be my family, and they'll probably do it soon. They'll learn about something - probably the host club, that my clients here are women. There will be reports from the bodyguards, or my maids, or the headmaster, or maybe a detective... But it will be clear that I am no longer working to seize the Suoh fortune - any fortune - and I will be taken back in disgrace. Business might even be halted for a moment so they could tell me so to my face."

"Oh," said Haruhi.

That was it.

"Hmm."

All right, _now_ that was it.

"Eh?" said Tamaki. "Kyoya? But what about the Ohtori private police force? Are they no longer keeping track of Éclair?"

"Of course they are. You hadn't figured that out yet, my dear?" he said, looking up from his laptop to grin at her.

"I saw that coming," said Haruhi.

"Why do you think our kidnapper hasn't got rid of you yet?" the twins complained.

"It might just be," said Haruhi, blushing faintly, "that you can stay here as long as you like."

 _Here._ She had to sit down abruptly. _Home. With family._

Of course, Éclair was too circumspect to speak that revelation out loud. Tamaki might never stop hugging every one of them.


End file.
